Online League Cheat Prevention

[SteveBsFan]

disclaimer: I've never had any personal experiences with people who cheat, but this is an idea I hope more sports FO games start putting in.
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I hope it's not too late, but what about the idea of a cheat prevention for online leagues to prevent a commish from re-simming the league to get the results he wants. I'm not sure of the best way to go about it is, but perhaps something like logging every single event that happens when a player make a commissioner type of move regardless if he saves the league or not. Then that file gets sent along with the league files and players of the league can check to make sure everything is cool. If he sims it twice, it will say something like ..

12-08-05 - 5:27 pm est - simulated games from 4/26-5/04
12-08-05 - 5:33 pm est - simulated games from 4/26-5/04

If GM's see that, they can ask the commish what happened, and of course if no good reason then they'll know he cheated.

Just an idea, don't flame me please

[kq76]

I'm not going to say how because it might not be obvious to some cheaters and then they might use it, but you could easily get around that. Lots of cheaters are dumber than rocks though and that might catch some of them.

I've had a number of ideas that I think would help prevent cheating in online leagues, but like the above, I don't think it's best to state them publicly.

EDIT: If Markus wants to help prevent cheating in online leagues then I think he should ask for PMs about it or something.

[SteveBsFan]

Right, I understand that. Wouldn't be very smart to tell exactly how you prevent cheating, but it would be nice to have some features in these type of games.

[spleen1015]

Why not just PM those ideas anyway?

[Spindel]

I don't know about it. Anything like that, assuming your talking about a text file, would be easily accessable and could be edited with the right knowlegde.

I think it would be better if you could have players ratings be uneditable after being drafted.

[kq76]

Originally Posted by SteveBsFan

... but it would be nice to have some features in these type of games.

I'm with you on that 100%.

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Why not just PM those ideas anyway?

Because I imagine he's probably busy and doesn't want to read and reply to 2 dozen PMs and emails a day (by anyone). I've PM'd him before and the only time I've gotten a reply back was when he asked for me to PM him in the first place. I don't expect replies to unsolicited PMs and I don't think people usually should, but that tells me he's not one to reply to them. Besides, it's kind of pointless if he's not interested in working on this and I'd rather not annoy him if he's not. If he says he is interested though, then I'll PM him and I hope others do too.

[BruceM]

Well it's a nice idea, I'd rather see Markus spending time on the game itself then worrying about putting in a few blocks that might or might not prevent cheating. If people want to cheat, they're going to find a way.

[SteveBsFan]

Originally Posted by BruceM

Well it's a nice idea, I'd rather see Markus spending time on the game itself then worrying about putting in a few blocks that might or might not prevent cheating. If people want to cheat, they're going to find a way.

Maybe someone can make a 3rd party application similar to what punkbuster did for online FPS games. Although I don't think cheating is as bad as it is in those games.

[RchW]

I can't imagine a more empty or joyless feeling that would come with winning in an online league via cheating. One could understand, though not excuse, cheating where there was some really important goal or prize available (think Olympics). Note I'm not saying the latter is OK.

IMO let people cheat all they want. If someone's feelings of self worth are tied up in their success in an online league, they can have it. I've got a real life.